The negative stigma around recreational marijuana usage carries a history of division.
Just down the street on West 29th Street is Cannabis House and a few blocks away on West Jefferson, La La Land: two accessible cannabis dispensaries a short walk away from campus. With Cannabis House offering student discounts for USC students, the dispensary consistently attracts them. As we see younger generations embracing marijuana usage, many people don’t feel comfortable revealing that fact due to the longstanding stigma.
For decades, cannabis has carried a reputation as a dangerous drug, associated with laziness or moral failure.
That stigma still shapes the way people talk about marijuana today, even as states like California have legalized its use and more research explores its medical use.
Undoubtedly, smoking marijuana carries a negative stigma; alcohol, by comparison, often escapes the same moral scrutiny. Drinking is deeply embedded in social life, from mixers to professional networking events. Many people who would never openly condone cannabis use will casually say it’s “just a beer” or say alcohol “doesn’t cause the same harmful effects.”
Despite alcohol carrying side effects like liver diseases, addiction and long-term health conditions, the effects of recreational usage of weed are not similar. The double standard is part of why the stigma around weed is increasingly outdated. Younger people are more likely to question old assumptions and compare based on actual risk rather than moral panic.
Part of the cannabis stigma from history comes from when marijuana was criminalized and tied to fear-based narratives linked to crime and violence. Those messages were not random and often racialized and used to justify harsher policing of Black and Brown communities. As a result, cannabis did not just become illegal — it became morally coded.
People have been taught to see smokers as unserious and unmotivated. These stereotypes linger especially among older generations, who came of age during the 1970s War on Drugs, meaning they still perceive smoking weed as a sign of bad character instead of just a personal choice.
This is incredibly important given that the United States has the highest rate of incarceration in the world, with almost half of those incarcerated serving time for drug offenses. The incarceration system in the United States has needed long-awaited reform. Approximately 81% of cannabis business owners or founders are white, but Black individuals are 3.6 times more likely to be arrested for marijuana possession.
This racialization was supported by the former U.S. President Richard Nixon’s comments, “We knew we couldn’t make it illegal to be either against the war or Black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and Blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities. We could arrest their leaders, raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news. Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did.”
We continue to see this history in the large number of people incarcerated for drug offenses. The U.S. has steered its focus on marijuana in the name of making a profit. Further, the government enables the negative stigma around weed because the benefits outweigh the consequences.
Cannabis has legitimate medical benefits that are increasingly recognized in discussions around pain management, sleep, anxiety and appetite stimulation. Marijuana still carries harmful effects, I am not here to pressure people to consume weed when they can’t sleep or feel anxious. What I’m saying is that the stigma around weed should involve a deeper analysis of what the judgment is framed upon.
Understanding the impact of chemicals found in cannabis on the brain has allowed research to provide medical marijuana to treat patients with Alzheimer’s disease, post-traumatic stress disorder, and serious and ongoing pain. While its recreational safety requires more research, marijuana has become more acceptable.
With 24 states legalizing recreational marijuana use and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration moving to reclassify the drug from a Schedule 1 to a less restricted Schedule 3, the acceptance of the usage signals a change in how we are moving past an outdated understanding of marijuana.
The social acceptance of weed comes from a growing awareness about addiction, anxiety and self-care. Gallup polls from 2023 reported that Generation Z is drinking less than older generations. In 2022, New Frontier Data reported that a significant portion of Gen Z prefer marijuana over alcohol — 69% of people ages 18 to 24 prefer weed to alcohol. This growing usage does not mean people are becoming lazier; instead, people are deciding for themselves how they approach marijuana.
While I am not here to tell you to stop ordering a vodka cranberry from the bar; your judgment toward marijuana use should not continue the stigma that has enforced racial disparities and initial judgments toward users.
USC students have taken the initiative to educate people on its usage with the Cannabis at SC club hosting attorneys and informals on marijuana consumption. As April 20 passes — an unofficial holiday for stoners — it’s important to understand the deep history marijuana carries.
The path toward the legalization of marijuana is based on ensuring that the disparities between the cannabis industry and those incarcerated for minor offenses do not continue.
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